Chennai: Magnus Carlsen has achieved what his comaptriot Simen Agdestein couldn't. Agdestein had entered the 1987 world junior chess championship in Philippines with high hopes of bettering the previous year's silver medal show. But the top seed from Norway was shocked by a dark horse that was Viswanathan Anand.
GM Agdestein, who spotted Carlsen's talent when he was just nine years old, said the newlycrowned world champion was a deserving winner.
“What Carlsen is doing for our country is amazing. It took some time for all of us to realise what has happened. He has achieved something I couldn’t. He will stay on as a world champion for a while from now. He is living my dream,” added Agdestein.
“I actually had the world champion vision in my mind. When I saw this enormously talented boy, I transferred the vision to him. I could tell right away that he had a feel for the game. We were discussing topics as if talking to professor when he was only 11-year-old. He, in fact, looked much younger, but showed maturity and wisdom beyond his age. It was obvious that he was special,” Agdestein said.
Recalling his ambition to become world champion, Agdestein said he was close to achieving the target, but decided to do something else. “My life took a turn and I moved towards football and studies,” added Agdestein, who specialised in political science and has also played for Norway football team.
Carlsen’s rise to stardom, Agdestein said, was well on the cards. “Even as a young boy, he had the potential. But his goal was not to become a world champion but to master the game,” said Agdestein, who nurtured the young boy until he became a global chess icon. Noting that Carlsen hasn’t had any bad moments in his career,
Agdestein said that the newly-crowned world champion always showed rapid recovery after losing a game or making a bad move. “In the world championship, he was nervous in the first game and that was probably one of the rarest bad moments in his career,” he added.
“Carlsen played the world championship with his only-revealed second GM Jon Ludvig Hammer back home in Norway.
Carlsen communicated with him through Skype.
He did not even reveal the names of his other seconds yet. This boy is really special,” Agdestein added.
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